1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for reproducing AV data in an interactive mode, a method of handling a user input, and an information storage medium therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital versatile discs (DVDs), which are capable of playing back AV data in an interactive mode based on a personal computer (PC), are being sold in the marketplace. On interactive DVDs, AV data is recorded according to DVD-Video standards in addition to markup documents for supporting an interactive function. AV data recorded on an interactive DVD may be displayed in two modes: a video mode wherein AV data is displayed in the same way as general DVD-Video data and an interactive mode wherein an AV picture from AV data is embedded in a display window defined in a markup document to be displayed along with a markup document. For example, in a case wherein AV data is a movie title, the movie title is shown in a display window of a screen and various additional pieces of information such as scripts, plots, photos of actors and actresses, and the like are displayed on the remaining portion of the screen. Alternatively, the various additional information may be displayed in synchronization with the title (AV data). For example, when a specific actor or actress appears in the title, a markup document containing information on his or her background may be displayed.
The interactive mode requires two playback engines, i.e., a playback engine for interpreting and presenting a markup document and an AV playback engine for playing back AV data of a DVD-Video format. In other words, two large domains, which may be navigated by a user, i.e., a markup document and DVD-Video data, exist in the interactive mode. Since the two domains are controlled and navigated by different methods, it is preferable that a control key and a navigation key exist separately. In a case of a conventional interactive DVD, a browser built in a PC serves as a playback engine for playing back a markup document and user input devices of the PC, i.e., a keyboard with relatively many input keys and a mouse capable of pointing anywhere in the markup document, serve as navigation keys.
However, in an event that a home device, which is controlled by a user input device such as a remote control with limited keys and supports the interactive mode, is desired to be realized, the use of individual navigation keys is not efficient.